FS2004 Performance - AMD 1GHz

[Guest]

Ok, I picked a great time to get back into Flight Simulator right when a new version is coming out! My computer is needing an upgrade anyway and I figure I'll have to do something to get the new version to run. I know I meet the minimum system requirements but in the past those minimum requirements have not meant the sim will run like I would want it to. So, some of you have tested the beta version and have the gold version...my question is will I be able to run the sim on my computer setup as listed below and what upgrade would be best for me out of my listed options? Thanks very much!!!AMD 1 GHz512 RAMNVIDIA G-FORCE 2I'm looking at the following upgrades:Either the Intel P4 2.4 GHz (800 FSB) w/ DFI PS83-BL MotherboardorAMD Athlon XP 2600 w/ Abit KD7 VIA KT400 MotherboardStaying with 512 RAM either way...maybe 1 Gig if I can afford it.Video Card:Either the Nvidia GeForce FX 5600 256MB AGP Video Card,orGeFORCE-4 Ti-4800SE NVIDIA, TV-Out, Dual Head, DVI 128 MB DDR RAM*Still trying to figure out which one of these also has Video-In capability to hook up a TV or VCR and record on the computer.Thanks in advance for any help!!!Brandon Thetford

[John_Cillis 2,406]

You'll be able to run the sim surprisingly well on your existing system, provided you don't try to max everything. Sliders "right" in FS2002 doesn't equal sliders "right" in FS2004. Autogen is a great example of that--it is much richer in detail. The airports are another example.Still, I get reasonable performance on a low spec system.On your existing system, the only thing which may seem weak initially is caused by your graphics card. The GEF 2 is unable to display water reflections in FS2004. Having seen FS2004's water reflections on a Radeon 9200, they are nothing short of beautiful and surprisingly, do not hit performance as much as they do in FS2004.As to the other upgrades, you'll get many opinions (AMD vs. Pentium, GeForce vs. Radeon, etc...). Just wait, and fly the sim with what you have, and first match visual detail to what you see in FS2002--advice I just gave in another thread. I will say from what I've read of the GeForce 4XXX vs. the 5XXX, I'd be more inclined to take a deal on a 4XXX. Skip the 256megs of vidram if cost is an issue. Using the same Radeon mentioned above as an example, even 128 megs of vidram didn't make a difference in FS2004. I ended up returning the Radeon, as it cost me peformance over a GeForce 2. The more I think about it, the more I suspect that the drivers are optimized for faster systems, vs. Nvidia's driver architecture. I intend on replacing my Geforce 2 with a 4200--on a budget, and I've heard good things from GEF users regarding the 4200.Hope this helps a bit....

[Guest]

thanks alot for the info...I think my first step in the next couple of weeks before FS2004 hits the shelves is going to be to upgrade my video card. I'll probably go the GeForce 4 route and get a Ti-4800 I think it is? Another computer I use away from home has one and it has TV-In and Out which is another thing that I want in my computer. Plus it's less than $200 which I like alot. If one of the new GFORCE FX cards has TV In capability I might get it though just for DirectX 9 compatibility because I believe the GF 4 isn't hardware compatible with DirectX 9. I don't know what benefits that will give me though except in the future. Thanks again!Brandon

[John_Tavendale 453]

I wouldn't bother with the lower end FX cards, their DX9 compatability doesn't mean squat in FS2004.

[Tabs 2,790]

I'd reccomend an ATI Radeon from the 9500 Pro series up instead of a GeForce FX - the Radeon's have proven faster in most of the benchmarks...Ryan

[Guest R5D4]

Bear in mind an AMD 1GHz will not run a GF4 any better than a GF3 (Look at 3DMark website for proof!). If you are going to keep your 1Ghz processor then a GF3 is the best vid card for your system, and they are very cheap. Even then you will not be utilising the GF3 as they best match 1.5G systems. A GF4 or above is a COMPLETE waste of money even if you plan to upgrade your CPU later, since when you upgrade your CPU I guarantee your GF4+ will be obsolete and you will want a better vid card!You can get a GF3 ti450, which is an overclocked ti200, for less than

[Gridley 257]

I'd have to agree with this. Katy pluta at simflight has done an interesting comparison in her system with several video cards. http://forums.simflight.com/viewtopic.php?t=8119While she finds the 9500 way better than the ti4200, I'd caution that this result is different than what most people (eg tomshardware) find when comparing the two. What can be said is that the two are equivalent performers with Antitaliasing and anisotropic filtering off, but the 9500 is better (perhaps much better) with those on.sg

[Guest]

Might I suggest that for VHS INPUT, you obtain an EXTERNAL unit & software that will input through your USB port and/or firewire port.It is my experience that these work better IF you obtain the ones that have the encoder/decoder. (this takes care of the "copyguard" problem on VHS) Otherwise, trying to run VHS on your computer using just software can be a problem as the VHS in many cases sees this as an attempt to copy rather than watch, result="blue screen" dropouts on many commercial tapes. Also suggest using S-video cable if possible(better signal transmission to computer) rather than RCA jacks.

[Guest]

Ok, thanks for all the input ya'll...As for my video input options I already have a firewire card for my video camera and I won't be copying commercial VHS tapes...just stuff from my personal library. Anyway...I've found the followingA Jaton G-FORCE 4 Ti-4200 128 Meg Card with Video-In/Video-Out for $160.00 - Sounds like a good deal to me...what do ya'll think? I'd be updating this from a G-FORCE 2 GTS Card.I want to initially upgrade my video card and then upgrade the processor/motherboard and RAM sometime in the near future...AMD 1 GHz512 RAMGFORCE 2 GTS